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Tourism in West Dorset

Tourism in West Dorset is a diverse and important industry, bringing considerable benefits to local communities, creating wealth and supporting jobs. Tourism also helps to support the availability of general leisure and transport services and can contribute towards environmental improvements.

The Government defines tourism as being the activities of people travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes. Tourism refers to all activities of visitors including both overnight visitors and same-day visitors. This includes travel and visits for business purposes as well as for holidays and recreation.

The  tourism in West Dorset report 2008 (pdf, 493kb) (opens in a new window)   and  appendices (pdf, 152kb) (opens in a new window) provides background information related to tourism in West Dorset, which can be taken into account as part of the evidence base for the Local Development Framework.

The report covers:

  1. Visitors to West Dorset (where they come from and reasons for visiting)
  2. Visitor spend and the contribution to the local economy
  3. Holiday accommodation – current stock and occupancy
  4. Visitor attractions – variety and number of visitors
  5. Other visitor facilities
  6. Conclusions

Page one of the report lists the sources of information. The report was published by the district council in September 2008. The  West Dorset Visitor Survey 2008 (pdf, 528kb) (opens in a new window)  on behalf of the Dorset New Forest Tourism Data Project was published in August 2009. The information can be compared with previous years' surveys, some of which is included in the tourism in West Dorset report (pdf, 493kb) (opens in a new window) . South West Tourism has also published the value of tourism report 2007 (opens in a new window)  which contains a section relating to West Dorset. This can also be compared with previous years' information, some of which is in our 2008 report.

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